In the past, the computer industry has used proprietary server solutions that required custom components and could only be produced in low-volumes. To stay competitive, network equipment providers are developing solutions that employ modular servers and computer equipment. Thus, the industry is shifting away from custom, low-volume proprietary computer solutions towards standards-based, modular computer equipment, such as blade-based servers. Standards-based modular servers and computer equipment allow network equipment providers to deliver high-availability network solutions on shorter development cycles and at lower costs. Exemplary modular computer applications include network servers, switches, telecom servers, broadband access servers, telecom switches, mobile base station controllers and storage devices.
As the industry moves towards standard blade-based systems, such as CompactPCI, a need to comply with energy conservation standards is also apparent. One such standard is the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) standard, which allows the operating system control of both the passive and active hardware power-savings components. One version of the ACPI standard is described in “Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Standard, Revision 2.0” published Jul. 27, 2000. For example, in the cooling systems, the ACPI standard controls passive cooling by reducing power to less active components and controls active cooling by turning the available device fans on or off. More importantly, ACPI defines standard interface mechanisms that allow an ACPI-compatible operating system to control and communicate with an ACPI-compatible hardware platform.
Unfortunately, configuring modular blade based hardware to conform to the ACPI standard is extremely difficult. Compliance with the ACPI power savings or sleep modes is particularly difficult for a modular component using CompactPCI, because there is no way to adjust power delivery to the blade. Regrettably, if the modular blades could control the power flow, the modular blade based hardware could obtain the largest absolute power savings through compliance with energy conservation standards, such as ACPI. The modular blade based hardware would realize this power savings, in part because the modular hardware tends to have the largest hardware configurations. Furthermore, automatic power management in modular blade based server hardware is an invaluable alternative to turning off individual power switches on each server when the hardware is not in use.